Lord Black Explores Press Freedom in Oxford

By Matthew Adeiza

The greatest threat to British newspaper is not necessarily government control but the challenge of maintaining financial profitability.  If newspapers are not financially sustainable their freedom will be seriously curtailed. Lord Guy Black took this position while giving a lecture on the invitation of Oxford Media Society at Queen’s College, November 17, 2011. 

Lord Black, Executive Director of Telegraph Media Group, traced the origin of government efforts to control the press to the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 which sought to control the publication of seditious and libellous materials. The Act expired by the 1695 and was not renewed by the Commons. 

He noted that a renewed effort to curtail media excesses towards the end of the last century due to the perceived role of the paparazzi in Princess Diana’s death has not been significantly successful because of changing media technologies that make statutes obsolete before they can be reviewed. 

Drawing from his extensive experiences in media and politics, Lord Black submits that emphasis on self-regulation by media organizations and journalists rather than strict government regulation is the best solution to public concern about media excesses. 

He reasons that if the media are constrained through laws not to freely perform their duties democracy will suffer with its attendant consequences. This is particularly important in the digital age where there is a crisis of trust of online information. The traditional media continue to provide a source of authoritative information people can rely on.

The Telegraph boss concludes that despite general concern, which he shares, about government initiatives, especially after the phone hacking scandal, media organizations must solve their financial problems by taking advantage of digital opportunities to expand their reach and flow of income. He acknowledges that it is a herculean task as some smaller newspapers have already closed down but insists that papers need to survive to ensure the plurality of voices that characterises democracy.   

Lord Black also answered questions from the audience on a wide range of issues especially the values that have stood the Daily Telegraph out in a challenging media environment. In response, he explained that his paper’s success is due largely to “authoritative, vigorous and comprehensive journalism”.

The lecture was the last in the series organised by the Oxford Media Society for Michaelmas Term. It was also the last for Timothy Williams as the president of the society, after a successful tenure from March - December 2011.

On the whole, it was a wonderful way to end what proved an exciting term that brought us in intellectual contact with some of the best journalists and media executives in the UK. A peep into next term planned activities shows a more loaded time ahead.

Lord Black to Speak at Oxford Media Society

By Matthew Stokes

Lord Black

Three weeks ago, the Oxford Media Society hosted Andrew Mullins, MD of The Independent and The Evening Standard. If you were there you will know the enormous challenges which print media are currently facing. If not, you will nevertheless realise that the traditional newspaper is facing a task of Herculean proportions to hold its own in this age of digital media.

One title on the newsstands that is holding its own while adapting to the new climate is The Daily Telegraph. The widest-circulating quality daily, it sells over 600,000 copies a day (The Times, in second place, does not break the 500,000 barrier). The Sunday Telegraph, while losing to The Sunday Times, is also weathering this seemingly endless storm remarkably well. Circulation has fallen by just over 5% in the past year; The Sunday Times has lost a tenth of its readers over the same period.

Something, clearly, is being done right. Few people are better placed to tell us what this is than Lord Black, Executive Director of Telegraph Media Group, which owns both newspapers, as well as Telegraph.co.uk and their respective mobile and tablet versions. He will be speaking to Oxford Media Society on Thursday, November 17, 2011.

Lord Black has had a long and distinguished career in the press and media. After graduating from Peterhouse, Cambridge, with a double first in History and winning the Sir Herbert Butterfield Prize for History, he joined the Conservative Party Research Department for three years, before working as Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Energy.

After the 1992 election, he worked for the lobbying firm Westminster Strategy and PR consultants Good Relations. Four years later, he became Director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). Following the death of Princess Diana, he tightened constraints on the Press, specifically to control intrusion on the young princes’ privacy. When the Human Rights Act was enacted in 1998, Black lobbied to protect freedom of expression in the press.

Seven years later, Black became Director of Communications for the Conservative Party, and was also Press Secretary to then-leader Michael Howard, before joining Telegraph Media Group in 2005, the post he still holds today.

Lord Black holds several other notable positions both within and outside the media sector. Since 2009, he has been Chairman of the Press Standards Board of Finance, which funds the PCC, and also sits on the Advertising Standards Board, which funds the Advertising Standards Agency. As Chairman of the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust he works to maintain and enhance press freedom throughout the Commonwealth. He is also a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum and sits on the Council of the Royal College of Music.

In 2010, he was made a peer in the House of Lords as Baron Black of Brentwood. Despite his life in media, his first speech was on the role of older women in civic society and the particular problems of osteoporosis.

His diverse background is particularly relevant at this difficult time for the press. As well as the difficulties of new media, Lord Black will undoubtedly have much interesting insight into the PCC, which is currently being scrutinised by the Leveson inquiry.

Lord Black will be speaking to the Oxford Media Society this Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 8pm, in the Shulman Auditorium, The Queen’s College. If you will be attending, please indicate on Facebook  by clicking here.

Everyone is more than welcome, though it costs £2 for non-members while being free to members. Annual membership fees cost £10 only. Hope to see you there!

Peter Fincham reveals his success secrets at Oxford Media Society talk

By Emily Belton

The famous Hollywood saying “nobody knows anything” best summarises the process of commissioning television programmes. This sounds surprising coming from the Director of Television for the ITV network, Peter Fincham, and is even more unexpected from the man who commissioned Downton Abbey.

Nonetheless, it turns out that he has good reasons for his statement. Fincham was speaking at a talk co-hosted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Oxford Media Society at green templeton College , November 11, 2011.

The rest of his talk reveals not only the unpredictable nature of the television industry but also the ups and downs of a career in media. His tales are exciting and are certainly worth a listen - it seems that many agree: the packed room in Green Templeton College is testament to his standing in the media sector.

Fincham draws on his experiences of a varied career to enlighten his audience about. His application for a research position in the Late, Late Breakfast show in the BBC was not successful. He tells us that he was rejected for not being “populist” enough (or in his own words, he had too much of an “Oxbridge-y air about him”). While success may have arrived late in the day for Fincham, when it did eventually come, it did so in grand proportions.

He started out as a producer of the fledgling independent production company TalkBack in 1985, and eventually sold it in 2000 in a £62m deal. He was surprised when he was asked to be Controller of the BBC in 2005: “The BBC is an organisation of insiders” and he was an “outsider”. “I didn’t work my way up in conventional television at all”, he said.

Fincham believes TV journalism is imperative given the industry’s high levels of regulation and its impartiality. When he poses the rhetorical question, “Do we want the biggest national channels to have a duty of impartiality? the answer is a resounding “Yes”. As a strategist, reveals that British audiences want wholly British productions, hence the appeal of Downton Abbey and other programmes.

What of the future of television? Even though he has heard ominous predictions of TV viewing increasingly becoming ‘time-shifted’, i.e. being watched on Sky+ or TiVos, he believes that it won’t undermine the commercial underpinning of TV. TV has a “great future” ahead of it, and any issues that do arise will have solutions. In fact, he suggests an increase in live event programming in response to this rise in time-shifting viewing. While we don’t find out which programmes Fincham would cut if he had the ultimate choice, we do learn that he thinks The Apprentice, which he worked on under TalkBack, has “turned into a fantastic show”.

Finally, his advice to students thinking of embarking on a career in media is to keep knocking on doors. There is “a lot of demand for television”, with “far more output than twenty years ago”. You just need to “get through that door”. He was involved in making his first TV programme when he was 32 years old; you shouldn’t expect to be producing “the year after you graduate”.

Overall, Fincham delivers a fascinating talk, and the audience leaves having learnt something about both the television industry and the vicissitudes of a life in media.

The next Media Society event comes up November 17, 2011 with Guy Black, the Executive Director of the Telegraph Group at 8pm in Lecture Room A, Queen’s College.

Peter Fincham comes to Oxford November 11

By Matthew Stokes

You might not realise it, but you most likely have a lot to thank Peter Fincham for. One of the most powerful people in the media sector – 15^th in the country, according to Media Guardian’s 2011 list – he has been responsible for some of the greatest television successes of the past twenty years. Whatever your taste in television, Fincham has probably been involved in one of your favourites.

Fincham will speaking at a joing event by Oxford Media Society and Reuter's Institute for Journalism at Green Templeton College on Friday, November 11, 2011 at 12.30pm. There will be drinks and light lunch 30 minutes early.

You might not like to admit it, but what would we do without Downton Abbey? (Well, I suppose Sunday night JCR meetings might get a better turn out…). Or reality TV like The X Factor, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Britain’s Got Talent, Lord Sugar or Kim and Aggie? Thank Mr. Fincham for all of them.

He’s also brought us The Jonathan Ross Show, Davina (unlikely to be anyone’s favourite, but you never know), Daybreak, The One Show, and tonnes of laughter in the form of Green Wing and The IT Crowd. And if you fancy showing your gratitude for these cultural bastions, come and see him talk this week in Oxford about his media career.

Fincham studied at the other place (Churchill College) before joining Talkback in 1985. After its move into the television sector in 1989, he oversaw productions such as Da Ali G Show, I’m Alan Partridge and The Bill, winning an Indie Award for his contribution to the independent sector in 2001. On Talkback’s merger with Thames Television in 2003, he became Chief Executive of newly-formed Talkback Thames.

In 2005 the BBC somewhat controversially – or at least surprisingly – appointed him Controller of BBC One. Over the following two years he increased the channel’s audience share and was in control of a £873m annual budget. He managed to survive criticisms for spending £1.2m on new ‘circle idents’ in between programmes, for Jonathan Ross’s £18m salary and for axing Neighbours. However, during promotion for the fly-on-the-wall documentary Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, following criticisms for the publicity’s depiction of our beloved monarch walking out of a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz, he resigned in October 2007.

Only a few months later ITV hired him as Director of Television, a post he holds till today. Although he attracted controversy for axing Heartbeat and The Bill (a choice which 97% of the population reportedly opposed), he has been praised for massive successes such as Downton Abbey, as well as for bringing Jonathan Ross and Adrian Chiles to the commercial producer.

As he readily admits, there have been occasional failings: most notoriously, Davina, which was slated by critics and the public alike, and more recently Red or Black. In October, he admitted that the show would only return if changes were made to its format.

Peter Fincham is without a doubt one of the most influential and successful media personalities today. He will be talking to the Oxford Media Society at an event in conjunction with the Reuters Institute for Journalism in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College, Friday 11 November at 12.30pm.

Entrance is free, and sandwiches and drinks will be provided 30 minutes before the talk. There’s no reason not to come. Hope to see as many of you there as possible!

Confirm  your place on Facebook by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188412141240286.

Telegraph cartoonist Matt Pritchett Thrills Oxford Media Society

Matt drawing cartoons for participants after the lecture

By Matthew Adeiza

Matt Pritchett may have become a cartoonist by accident but it took hard work to become a world-class cartoonist, and his humour-soaked lecture at Queen’s College, University of Oxford, yesterday, November 6, 2011 was definitely not by accident. The Telegraph cartoonist was in Oxford to share his experiences with members of the Oxford Media Society about how he manages to balance humour with decorum in a way that has won him the love and admiration of many Telegraph readers.

Matt, as he is fondly called by his fans, explained that he became a cartoonist by accident (really?). He had tried his hands on graphic design and illustration without success before settling for cartoon. 

Matt started sending cartoons to newspapers because he needed money to survive (of course, man must eat). After many rejections, one of his entries was finally accepted. But that did not mean an automatic job. He still had to freelance for some time. And that meant little pay. But he wanted a permanent job. And hear this: an editor called one of his cartoons “the worst fucking thing I have ever seen!” If you were in his shoes would you quit? He didn’t!

Matt told us that he has learned that what makes the difference in his job is the extra effort. “Just a little extra”, he stressed. He makes it a point of duty to read and understand news in order to give context and currency to his cartoons while he would normally show drafts to colleagues for comments before submitting them to the editor.

But doesn’t he get harsh feedbacks from readers who feel offended by his cartoons? He said it hardly happens. Maybe because he does his homework very well. He advised his us to put in that little “extra” if we want to succeed. 

Matt and Tim with participants

And then this happened: he drew free cartoons for any participant who had a plain sheet of paper and wanted a sample! Before I forget, he had dinner with us before the lecture… and other things which cannot be reported because of space and time.

You missed out? Don’t worry, next time you know what to do.

Oxford Media Society to host Daily Telegraph cartoonist Matt Pritchett on Sunday

By Matthew Stokes

How do you create a joke from a serious news story? How do you know where the boundary between humour and distastefulness lies? How do you make a broadsheet reader chortle every morning, despite economic and political crises, while maintaining some level of political correctness?

Nobody is better placed to answer these questions than Matt Pritchett, pocket cartoonist of The Daily Telegraph for 23 years. Come and see him share his experiences at the Oxford Media Society’s next event.

Matt spent four years at St. Martin’s School of Art before taking up work in a pizza restaurant when the search for work as film cameraman proved fruitless. His first cartoons were published in the New Statesman, Punch and The Spectator.

After months spent submitting work to The Daily Telegraph (good to know that getting into journalism has never been an easy ride!) he became pocket cartoonist in 1988 after Mark Boxer’s death.

His front-page cartoons have brought him an unparalleled reputation in his sector. Six times a week, readers of the Telegraph are greeted with a humorous but rarely offensive cartoon. Matt prides himself on never having received a complaint from a politician and is respected for never having caused a scandal or overstepped the limits of humour.

In 2001, he was named an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List. In 2003, The Guardian named him one of the 50 funniest people in Britain. He has won several awards for his work, including ‘Cartoonist of the Year’ at the British Press Awards five times, the Cartoon Art Trust Awards three times, the UK Press Gazette Awards twice and the What the Papers Say Awards.
The Daily Telegraph also produces annual books and calendars of his work, as well as prints and a ‘Best of Matt’ volume.

Matt is coming to speak to the Oxford Media Society on the 6 November 2011 at the Shulman Auditorium, The Queen’s College, at 8pm. It promises to be a unique event from one of the most respected names in the cartoon media sector.
If you would like to have supper with Matt beforehand, please email oxfordmediasoc@gmail.com.

The talk starts at 8pm and is free to members and £2 for non-members. It costs £10 for a year's membership and this can be bought on the door or via PayPal (there is a link on the right hand side of the page).

You don't want to miss out on this fun-filled evening, do you? Hope to see you there!
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